The representative from the 2nd District is Greg Walden, a Republican elected in 1998. The lone Republican in Oregon’s congressional delegation and well-liked by the House GOP leadership, he got a prized Energy and Commerce subcommittee chairmanship overseeing telecommunications policy in 2011. Read More
The representative from the 2nd District is Greg Walden, a Republican elected in 1998. The lone Republican in Oregon’s congressional delegation and well-liked by the House GOP leadership, he got a prized Energy and Commerce subcommittee chairmanship overseeing telecommunications policy in 2011.
Walden grew up on an 80-acre cherry orchard near The Dalles in the Columbia Gorge; his father ran radio stations that had been in the family since the 1930s and also served in the state House. Walden followed his father into both pursuits. As a young man, he was a disc jockey and talk show host. Then, he got involved in politics as the press secretary and chief of staff for Republican Rep. Denny Smith from 1981 to 1987. Walden returned to Hood River to run the family’s five-station broadcast business, Columbia Gorge Broadcasters. In 1988, he was elected to the state House, eventually becoming majority leader.
When the 2nd District seat opened up in 1998 with the retirement of GOP Rep. Bob Smith, Walden ran and faced substantial primary opposition from Perry Atkinson, a Christian broadcaster who was backed financially by Gary Bauer’s Campaign for Working Americans and Americans for Limited Terms. Walden stayed competitive by raising $500,000 and prevailed over Atkinson with 55% of the vote. In the anticlimactic general election against a conservative Democrat, Walden won 61%-35%.
In the House, he is a conservative on fiscal issues but more moderate on cultural issues; he supports abortion rights, but opposes federal funding of abortions. Walden has been an active legislator who has caught the eye of Republican leaders with his political knowledge, knack for forming friendships and devotion to the party agenda. He is close to Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and when Sessions took over the National Republican Congressional Committee chairmanship, he made Walden his deputy. Then in early 2010, Minority Leader John Boehner picked Walden to fill the position of chairman of the Republican leadership, a post that had been vacant since Ohio’s Rob Portman left the House five years earlier. When Republicans reclaimed the House majority that fall, Walden became chief operating officer of his party’s transition to power, examining issues ranging from rules changes governing debate to finding ways to save money on House operations.
In January 2011, Walden took over as chairman of the Energy and Commerce telecommunications subcommittee. As a fierce critic of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, his appointment let the Obama administration know that Republicans would wage a fierce battle against the FCC. In early November 2011, Walden introduced legislation to loosen the regulatory powers of the FCC. The bill would force the FCC to justify any rule change by identifying market implications or potential harm to consumers. It would also require the FCC to disclose the text of its proposals before a vote.
Walden vowed to upend the FCC’s Internet rules, known as “network neutrality,” that prohibit anticompetitive behavior by phone and cable companies and that many Republicans regard as unnecessary regulatory interference. The full committee passed a ban on the rules on a party-line vote in March 2011. The bill passed the House in April, but it has not moved in the Senate. Walden and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. wrote a letter to President Obama in late October asking him to halt net neutrality rules expected to take effect in late November 2011. “The people of this country demand policies that promote economic growth. Regulating an industry that continues to invest billions each year in broadband networks, provides hundreds of thousands of jobs, and leads the world in innovation is not such a policy,” they wrote. Walden also targeted another of Obama’s main priorities—a $7.2 billion program intended to spur Internet development in rural areas.
In 2007, Walden was a leader of a coalition to stop efforts to restore the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting, which forced broadcasters to offer views opposing those of their on-air commentators. The rule was abandoned in 1987, and liberals have pushed to revive it to counter the influence of popular conservative talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh. Recalling his own days in broadcasting, Walden told The Oregonian newspaper that it was difficult to figure out who qualified to offer opposing viewpoints when his father read editorials on the air, so the family stopped airing editorials altogether. Political chatter over the broadcast network tends to be conservative, he said, but that should not matter. “Is it more conservative than liberal? Yeah,” Walden told the newspaper. “Are there a lot more country-western stations than polka stations? Yeah. Listeners make these determinations. The marketplace decides.” Walden may have won this battle, as FCC Chairman Genachowski said in June 2011 he would support removing the Fairness Doctrine from agency rulebooks.
Walden has focused on another national issue with strong local implications—forest management. He played a central role in 2003 in assembling bipartisan support for the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which was a legislative response to wildfires raging across the West from unlogged dry timber. He also successfully sought to reopen the flow of water to farmers in the Klamath Basin. The House passed his bill to expand the Mount Hood wilderness area, which became part of a 2009 omnibus public-lands law. Walden has worked to curb regulations under the Endangered Species Act by encouraging a greater role for outside scientists to review government proposals. In recent years, he also has tried to restore timber payments to rural counties, joining forces with homestate Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat. He worked with another Oregon Democrat, Kurt Schrader, on a bill in 2009 aimed at thinning woodlands and using the material to meet the demand for renewable fuels.
Walden has been re-elected easily. He has been urged repeatedly to run for governor, but has so far declined.
